"As for you..."
Elder Mu Cang finally looked toward Li Yun.
"Li Yun, come with me."
He waved his sleeve, an invisible force wrapped around Li Yun, and in the next moment both figures vanished from everyone’s sight.
"It’s finally over."
Only once Elder Mu Cang was gone did the surrounding cultivators start breathing normally again, since the pressure blanketing the area had been overwhelming. They looked at one another, and many of them shared the same thought.
What had happened today would not end with this one confrontation. It might instead be the spark that reshaped the entire situation inside the Genius Training Camp, and Li Yun would undoubtedly stand at the center of the coming storm.
Guided by Elder Mu Cang, Li Yun soon arrived inside a secluded chamber lit by soft candlelight. A thin elderly man with an elegant bearing sat at the center of the room, and as if sensing their arrival, he slowly turned around. It was Elder Qing.
"Greetings, Elder Qing."
Li Yun bowed respectfully.
"Mm."
Elder Qing nodded, studying him carefully, and then a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"Li Yun, I have to admit that you’re even more outstanding than I first expected. Your cultivation is only at the Heavenly Core Realm, yet you’ve already comprehended a Sword Domain. Your talent is remarkable." A trace of nostalgia entered his eyes. "You remind me a little of my master when he was young. He was just as sharp, fearless, and brilliant."
"Senior praises me far too highly," Li Yun replied modestly.
Elder Qing’s master was Azure Emperor, one of the six supreme experts of the Martial Dragon Continent, a genuine Life and Death Realm existence or perhaps even something beyond that, and such a level remained impossibly distant from Li Yun.
"Do I?" Elder Qing looked at him deeply. "If Bai Yuchen hadn’t stepped in earlier, I had the feeling you were fully prepared to kill Lei Xuankong yourself. You were too calm, almost as though you already knew how the whole thing would end."
Li Yun remained composed.
"Senior is reading too much into it. I come from a small region in the Eastern Martial Domain, and I’ve run into plenty of dangerous situations since I started cultivating. Those experiences taught me to stay calm whenever trouble shows up. Facing Lei Xuankong, I was only thinking about how to get out of the situation safely. There was nothing more to it than that."
"Is that so?"
Elder Qing narrowed his eyes slightly and observed him for a few moments, then finally smiled and nodded. Whether or not Li Yun was hiding something, his performance had only deepened the elder’s appreciation for him.
"Li Yun, since you’ve comprehended a Sword Domain while still in the Heavenly Core Realm, I’ve decided to set you three special trials. They won’t be easy, but if you complete them, the rewards will be equally extraordinary."
Li Yun’s attention sharpened at once.
"The first trial is the simplest." Elder Qing raised one finger. "Enter the top one hundred of the Genius Training Camp within three months. Succeed, and I’ll reward you with ten thousand points. On top of that, your monthly cultivation time inside the Enlightenment Pagoda will increase to fifteen days, you’ll be able to enter the other five secret realms without spending any points, and you’ll receive a thirty percent discount when exchanging points for treasures. That discount will apply even to treasures that require special authority."
Li Yun’s eyes brightened slightly, because the reward was already extremely generous, and yet Elder Qing had called this the first and simplest trial.
"The second trial is to enter the top ten of the Genius Training Camp within six months. If you manage that, you’ll receive fifty thousand points along with unrestricted access to all Six Great Secret Realms, including the Enlightenment Pagoda, and every treasure in the training camp exchange system will come at a forty percent discount."
Elder Qing then raised a third finger.
"The third trial is the hardest of all. Within nine months, become number one in the entire Genius Training Camp. Succeed, and you’ll receive one hundred thousand points, and every treasure available in this camp will be offered to you at half price."
Li Yun’s heart stirred, since the rewards grew more astonishing with each trial. Elder Qing, however, had not finished.
"And if you complete all three trials, I’ll add one more reward. A complete set of Phantom Deity Armor."
"What?"
Elder Mu Cang, who had stayed silent until now, suddenly exclaimed, his expression changing dramatically.
Li Yun himself did not react strongly, because he had never heard of the Phantom Deity Armor, but Elder Mu Cang knew exactly what those words meant. He had always known that Elder Qing thought highly of Li Yun, yet he had never imagined the regard ran this deep.
The Phantom Deity Armor was an incredibly rare treasure that Azure Emperor had recovered from an ancient ruin, and only three complete sets had ever been given to Elder Qing. Elder Qing used one himself, the second had gone to Elder Mu Cang, and the third had stayed in Elder Qing’s possession for many years.
Countless experts had tried to obtain it, some of them king-level existences, and several had offered nearly their entire family fortune in exchange, yet Elder Qing had turned down every single offer.
Now he was willing to hand that final set to Li Yun as a reward.
The three trials were certainly brutal. Reaching the top one hundred within three months was already a challenge, breaking into the top ten within six months would be far harder, and taking first place within nine months bordered on madness.
Even so, measured against the true value of the Phantom Deity Armor, conditions that harsh still seemed reasonable.
Elder Mu Cang could not make sense of it. What exactly had Elder Qing seen in this young man that made him willing to offer something so precious?
For the first time, even he felt a faint trace of jealousy toward the cultivator standing beside him.
"Phantom Deity Armor? What exactly is that?"
A puzzled look crossed Li Yun’s face. Judging by how shocked Elder Mu Cang had been a moment ago, he could already tell the armor was an extraordinary treasure, but he still had no idea what made it so precious.

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